Dwight Ramos is starting to find his groove. But his effort was not enough to lift Toyama to its breakthrough win in the 2021-22 B.League season.
The Grouses’ gallant stand was not enough to buckle Ryukyu, absorbing an 88-95 loss, Saturday at the Toyama Seibutai Sports Center.
After averaging just 7.5 points in his first two games of the season, Ramos scored 16 points on 5-of-12 shooting from the field with four rebounds, an assist, and a steal.
And Ramos had the game on his hands late after the Grouses rallied from 12 points down to tie the game at 82-all with three minutes remaining.
Down 88-91, Ramos missed on a triple with 38.4 seconds left. This was coupled by a costly Julian Mavunga that led to freebies for Ryuichi Kishimoto and Jack Cooley.
Toyama went down to 0-7 while Ryukyu rose to 5-2.
Dwayne Evan got 25 points and seven rebounds to lead the way for the Golden Kings while Allen Durham added 12 points. Cooley had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
A good sight for Toyama was that Joshua Smith played his best game in the season so far, tallying 19 points, six rebounds, and two blocks.
Locals Keijuro Matsui, Naoki Uto, and Toshiki Kamisawa also stepped up with Matsui finishing with 14 points spiked by four treys while Uto and Kamisawa added 11 points each.
The two teams will tussle once more tomorrow at 12:05PM.
